Although the modern Gaelic name for Govan, Baile a'Ghobainn, suggests
its origin in a settlement of smiths ( "Smithville" would be the rather
suburban sounding translation! ), the early forms of the name found in
mediaeval texts do not support this view. In addition, if this were the
origin of the name, it would mean that the generic, baile, "farmstead,
township", had dropped away, leaving only the genetive of the Old Gaelic (OG)
gobae ( genetive gobann ) "smith", without its original generic ( though
names with smiths in them do exist in Ireland, notably the monastery
Brígobann, now Brigown. ). Alan Macquarrie ( 1994, 27 ) has
recently suggested that the name comes from Gaelic gobán,
"small beak, point, promontory". This cannot be accepted either.
Gobán, a diminutive of gob, was in OG gop, "a beak",
pronounced "gob", as in the English word to which it gave rise ( cf. OED,
gob ). The /b/ here could not have given us the /v/ which is most
certainly present in the earliest attestations of the name Govan.

These forms include:

c.1134, Guuen ( Lawrie 1905, 82 )

c.1150, Guuan ( Lawrie 1905, 345 )

1275, Govan ( cf. Johnston 1934, 196 )

1518, Gwuan ( Ibid. )

It is clear from these forms that the first vowel also demands explanation
which neither an origin in OG gobae, "smith", nor OG gopán,
"little beak", can adequately provide.

I would suggest that the name is from a Brittonic ( i.e., Cumbric or
North British ) word, *gwovan, made up of the elements gwo-/go- "small,
slight, little, under", and ban "crest, point, bare hill, height" ( cf.
GPC, go, go-; ban, 1 ). Although this compound is unattested in the
Brittonic languages, gwo-, later Welsh go-, is well-known in
combination with topographical terms, for instance in Welsh I,
"small township, settlement"; godir, "region, slope" ( These terms may
be active in Pictish nomenclature, cf. Fothrif <?*uo-+trev; Fettir -<*uo-+tir. ).
It is probably present in the Welsh place-names Gogarth, Gofilon and Gogerddon,
and certainly in the Cornish name Godolphin House ( <go-+tolghan, cf. Padel
1988, 87 ). Ban is also well-known in Welsh place-names such as Ban Arthur
and Tal-y-fan, and in the north it is the root of the British name for the
range of hills which rise near Stirling, Bannawc, whence Bannockburn
( Jackson 1969, 78-9 ).

Although in Welsh the prefix gwo- became go-, this may not have been the
case further north ( Jackson 1955, 163 ). In Pictish, the equivalent of Welso
gwo- was *uo-, which seems to have become *wu- in some contexts,
and a similar situation may have applied, for all we know, in Cumbric. Thus,
the early forms of Govan may well represent the reduction of the original
gwo-.

What would be the "small hill, little crest" of the name *Gwovan? It could
perhaps be interpreted as "point, tip", and thus refer to the promontory
which Macquarrie took to be the referent of his gobán, "little
beak". More likely, in my view, it refers to the small but prominent crest of
Doomster Hill, in early drawings the only rise in the land for some distance
around. Seen from the north bank of the Clyde, with its range of hills, this
diminutive, but highly significant, eminence could well have inspired the
name of Govan. This British derivation sits well with those of its neighbours,
Glasgow and Partick ( Perthec, c.1150 ), especially the latter, to which it
was linked. If the name does indeed refer to the Doomster Hill, it would be
at least a small indication that that mound dates from a period when North
British / Cumbric was still in active use in the area, and hence probably
could not be much later than the tenth century.